from all the charges of horror and contagion that had been urged
against it, narrating vehemently how a mad dog had died in her arms
licking her hands and face, and appealing to the General, who
denounced muzzling; but when the mangy mastiff came near him he
whispered to Frank, "I wish they were all shot. You must come and see
us; you must come and see us; I have a pretty little place in the
Southdown Road (dreadful place to mention here, they don't like it; of
course the people there aren't all quite the thing, but what are you
to do, you know?). Lunch at two, dinner at eight--old Indians, you
know. I have everything I want. Too many animals, perhaps, but that
can't be helped."

"Do you live here all the year?"

"Yes, all the year round. We don't go away much. We have everything
here--coach-houses, horses, you'll see when you come. The only thing I
want is a little occupation, a little something to bring me out, you
know. I read the _Morning Post_ every morning, and I have the _St
James's_ in the evening; but then there is the middle of the day," and,
with laughter full of genial kindness and goodwill, the General
repeated this phrase: "I want a little something to bring me out, you
know."

Forty years of Indian sun! Balls in the Government House in Calcutta!
Viceroys, tigers, horse-racing, elephants, jealousies, flirtations,
deaths, all now forgotten, and if not forgotten, at rest; and now glad
to watch life unfolding itself again in an English village, this old
couple sat in the calm sunlight of an English garden, relics of
another generation, emblems of an England drawing to a close.